Arts, Briefly

Compiled by Lawrence Van Gelder

Published: August 10, 2005

Rabbi Seeks 'Klinghoffer' Boycott

A rabbi who is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has called for a boycott of the 1991 John Adams opera ''The Death of Klinghoffer'' when it is presented by the Scottish Opera in its British stage premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival on Aug. 23, The Guardian reported. The production calls for members of the chorus, sitting in the audience with concealed replica guns, to storm the stage in the guise of terrorists. ''I would hope the people of Edinburgh would respond appropriately by allowing these moral midgets to do their opera to an empty house,'' said the rabbi, Abraham Cooper. The opera fictionalizes the hijacking in 1985 of the cruise ship Achille Lauro by Palestinian militants who shot a disabled American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, in his wheelchair (above, Stephen Powell in a different production in Brooklyn) and threw him overboard. Rabbi Cooper said, ''To portray a terrorist in heroic terms and to, in effect, make the audience part of a 'terrorist onslaught,' I find it very difficult to express my level of outrage.'' Sir Brian McMaster, the director of the festival, replied: ''I think that it's a piece that deserves its British stage premiere. I think we should be doing it -- and current events make it as relevant as ever it was.''

'New' Vivaldi Work Is Heard

A snippet of a 35-minute piece newly attributed to Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was played last night by an ensemble at Melbourne University in Australia in what was believed to be its first performance in perhaps 250 years, The Associated Press and Reuters reported. The full 11-movement Dixit Dominus, a choral psalm for choir and soloists, was found this year in the Saxon State Library in Dresden by Janice Stockigt, left at center, a musicologist at the university who was in the final week of five years of research into sacred music in Germany. The work had been attributed to a Vivaldi contemporary, Baldassare Galuppi, but Ms. Stockigt noticed distinctive patterns that prompted her to believe it had been miscataloged and misattributed. A leading Vivaldi expert, Prof. Michael Talbot of the University of Liverpool, agreed with her conclusion after examining the manuscript. Plans call for a performance of the full work next year in Dresden as part of its 800th-anniversary celebration, Melbourne University said.

Giant Buddhas Inspire Laser Art

The giant 1,600-year-old statues known as the Buddhas of Bamiyan, blasted to pieces by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 after they were decreed un-Islamic, will be commemorated as laser images on the clay cliff sides, below, where they once stood, in a work planned by a California-based artist, The Associated Press reported. The artist, Hiro Yamagata, 58, from Torrance, Calif., would use 14 laser systems, powered by solar panels and windmills, to project 140 overlapping faceless ''statues,'' 125 to 175 feet tall, across four miles of the Bamiyan cliffs, about 80 miles west of Kabul, in neon shades of green, pink, orange and blue, continuously changing color and pattern, for four hours every Sunday night. ''I'm doing a fine-art piece,'' said Mr. Yamagata, whose work was recently displayed at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. ''That's my purpose -- not for human rights, or for supporting religion or a political statement.'' But Robert Brown, an art historian from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a curator of Southeast Asian art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said, ''Yamagata's lasers obviously have a commemorative notion to them, like the 9/11 memorial in New York.'' Afghan officials approached Mr. Yamagata about the plan in 2003 and gave him conditional approval last year, pending a go-ahead from Unesco, which has been evaluating ways to preserve murals in caves nearby.

More Books by Albright

Madeleine K. Albright, above right, secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 in the Clinton administration, is writing about international relations and religion as part of a two-book deal with HarperCollins, Reuters reported. The first book, ''The Mighty and the Almighty: God and Religion in American Foreign Policy,'' is to be published in the spring. Jonathan Burnham, senior vice president and publisher of HarperCollins, who worked on her best seller, ''Madam Secretary'' (Miramax, 2003), said, ''She'll offer a sharp critique of U.S. policy, condemnation for those who exploit religious fervor for violent ends, and praise for political, cultural and spiritual leaders who seek to harness the values of faith to bring people together.'' Her second book, yet untitled, will be an illustrated work devoted to her collection of decorative pins.

Footnotes

This year's Charlie Parker Jazz Festival of free performances has been scheduled for Aug. 27 at 3 p.m. in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and at the same time the next day in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. The first day's lineup includes Bobby Watson & Horizon, the Odean Pope Saxophone Choir, Hiromi and Soweto Kinch. The second day's stars are Geri Allen, the Odean Pope Saxophone Choir, the pianist John Hicks with the saxophonist David (fathead) Newman and the Cindy Blackman Quartet.

Suzan-Lori Parks, left, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for drama for ''Topdog/Underdog,'' has been hired to write the script for the Broadway-bound version of the life of Ray Charles to be produced by Stuart Benjamin and Howard and Karen Baldwin, who produced the film ''Ray.'' The run of the Will Eno hit ''Thom Pain (based on nothing)'' at the DR2 Theater has been extended for a second time, through Dec. 31. On Sept. 5, T. Ryder Smith will replace James Urbaniak in the one-man show.